Weightless in an alien landscape

Hunter Scuba diver and photographer Will Owyong first came to the attention of ABC Open through his contribution of a Weedy Seadragon photo via the Snapped: Your Best photo project.

Now Will has put together a 110% Sport story with the assistance of some dive buddies and ABC Open Hunter.

"That alien landscape, that underwater world, is not something that everyone gets to see unfortunately," says Will.

Will worked with ABC Open on a script for his short documentary video, recording an interview at the ABC Newcastle studio that he edited at home, before editing it together with footage from a recent dive at Montague Island.

In the script he focuses on capturing the action and the passion associated with the sport.

"When I go diving it's a really euphoric and weightless sensation," Will said.

"That moment when I'm giving it 110% my brain is in overdrive; it's thinking about every conceivable possibility and thing that I'm feeling at the time.

"I'm feeling the water current, I'm feeling how deep I am, I'm looking at the computer, I'm checking where my buddy is."

According to Will the ability to capture underwater photography comes only after mastering the physically demanding aspects of scuba diving.

"Above water you've got your tripod, good solid stable ground, and you've got your sun as a light source or a flash," says Will, "but underwater you have to bring everything with you.

"Every single shot is different; you're not standing down on a stable platform you're floating mid water, or sometimes you can't even touch the ground.

"I'm not going to say it's more difficult than above-water photography, but there are certainly different things you need to consider."

Will offered a couple of tips for photographers considering going underwater for the first time, and some insight into how he captured the weedy sea dragon as featured in the ABC Open promotional calendar for 2013.

"One of them is bringing down a red filter," Will said, "that will put more red back into your image and allow you to get a better colour range."

"Another thing is to bring your own light, so take down underwater lights, underwater flashes and just light it up with your own light sources."